The One That Got Away
by Thanatos Angelos Girl
Summary: It was all over and he still wasn't hers and he never would be. He was the one that got away. Harry/Hermione


**The One That Got Away**

_**Disclaimer: I don't own HP!**_

_**A/N: This is for homework set by Professor Mist in Hogwarts Online II. Enjoy!**_

"_In another life, I would make you stay."_

_-Katy Perry, The One That Got Away_

Hermione would never do anything to endanger her friendship with Harry and for that reason she ignored the pain that shoot through her body as she watched Ginny and him kiss. That's why she just went ahead upstairs into the seventh year dorms with the purpose to pack. But that's not what Hermione did. Hermione, because she was alone and she didn't have to wear that mask of indifference, sat on her bed and embraced the pain with salty tears.

She couldn't stop Harry from loving Ginny that was simply impossible. Harry loved her best friend and Ginny loved him too. Hermione didn't think they were right for each other but rather they decided to hold on to each other now, after the war, because they both needed someone to be strong for. That wasn't a reason to love someone though, and Hermione knew she loved Harry for him and not because he could save her like he did the Wizarding World. But did that truly matter when she wasn't a bubbling and young red head who was experienced in romance? She had only dated Viktor for a while and Ron, while he was kind, he wasn't right for her and they broke things off shortly after the Wizarding War.

Today was the last day of their seventh year and they were going to have a blast but at midnight all of it would come crashing down. Harry was her best friend and so she knew exactly why it would. She didn't want to think about it though. It made her feel better to know that Ginny and Harry were just a lovesick couple and not that sick word. She never thought that word was sick until she tried to apply it to Harry and Ginny. She thought with all of her being that this was wrong. Ginny was a young and scared girl who was trying to grab a knight for safety. She didn't love him. She thought she did but she really didn't, she was only in love with the idea of him, not him though. She loved that he was famous and strong and so Gryffindor but she didn't love or even know about the times where he was weak and afraid.

Harry was only in love with Ginny because she was a red head like his mother was and he was trying to feel close to her and his father by marrying a sweet red head like his father did. He thought the family image was just like his parents and he simply wanted to recreate it because he never had it. He wasn't in love with her. He had not given Ginny a dance like he did to Cho and then Hermione. He had kept her safe and made her feel better in that war and even kept by her side when Ron saw them together and got so angry and hateful.

_If Ron could tell there was something then why didn't he see it? Did the locket finally reveal the truth? Who Hermione really cared about?_

He didn't love Ginny. But could she open her mouth and tell him that? Could she destroy her friend's happiness for a love Hermione wasn't so sure she deserved? How would Molly feel when her only chance to have Harry in the family was taken away and her baby girl was crying her eyes out (because she wouldn't see the truth until later)? Did Harry even care about her or would her actions, should she do them, just bring pain? Hermione loved her friends so much that she couldn't do this to Ginny. Truly she couldn't. But Hermione still wanted to with all her heart.

_What she wouldn't give for one more day._

How could she begin to confess when she was so inexperienced? She couldn't and because Hermione was not blind and very logical she couldn't just ignore the consequences and go right ahead. She wasn't foolish. She had gone through so much in a year and she knew sometimes you had to face the music and do what you didn't want to do.

_She had to let Harry go even if it wasn't what she wanted._

Hermione could hear a noise from the opposite side of the dorm doors and she pulled herself together, straightening her cloak and clothes, and wiping a stray tear from her face. Hermione could feel a change in her whole body; her façade to fool the world arose from the depths of her.

"Hermione, come on now! We can pack later." Lavender Brown stood in the doorway and all she could do was thank Merlin it was not Ginny who had opened the door even thought she did so with a vile taste of guilt on her tongue.

"You are right, let us celebrate the last day of our school years." Hermione could tolerate Lavender now that she wasn't in love with Ron (she had been for a few fleeting months a few years ago) and after the war the girl before her had grown out of her annoying, prissy state. Lavender seemed to have aged a decade and she had an air of wisdom now that before Hermione could not imagine Lavender would have. Still the girl had her moments…

"Wait, you can't celebrate in that outfit. Do you have any party clothes?" Lavender asked and Hermione looked down at her outfit. True it was a little plain but she didn't need much for school anyway. She started looking though her trunk.

"Umm… Yes I believe Ginny and I went shopping… Here it is, let me change." Hermione pulled out a few items along with a pair of earrings and waved back at Lavender before heading to the girl's bathroom.

"I'll wait for you." Lavender called to her.

"Thanks." She said and was about to pull the bathroom door opened when a thought occurred to her. "Are the others already there?"

"Yes."

"Oh." Hermione couldn't believe they would leave her without telling her where they were going. Ginny didn't even come up to tell her…

"Only after I told them to go ahead and I would take care of you." Lavender added quickly seeing Hermione's expression. She faked a smile back to the girl and went into the bathroom.

_She remembered a time when they would have never left her alone. Was she being replaced?_

They couldn't be replacing her right? She was part of their trio not Ginny but could the Golden Trio be splitting into pairs? Was she going to be left alone because she couldn't love Ron and he loved Lavender along with Harry loving Ginny?

She felt a traitorous tear fall down her cheek. What about if she could make Harry see that she was a girl he could fall in love with too? Maybe he could love her then, if she proved they weren't siblings but rather just close? If she was already being replaced then what did she have to lose? Besides, did Ginny have to know that she confessed if something didn't happen?

She dressed in her blue asymmetrical one shoulder shimmering top and black jeans that flared out at the bottom and she wore blue flats and earrings that matched the top. This was what Ginny had referred to as her 'clothes to kill' outfit. She looked great in it, especially considering that she didn't normally wear feminine clothes like this. She was more logical in her daily choices. She didn't need a fashionable and fussy outfit everyday so why wear it?

She looked in the mirror and muttered a spell to give her a clean and fresh makeup look (she refused to wear makeup like blue eye shadow after all why should you cover your face in gunk and look like you are too) and walked back out into the dorms where Lavender was staring out the windows of the tower.

At the sound of her walking into the room Lavender turned around and literally, Hermione had only heard of this happening in stories, her jaw dropped to form an 'O'. Hermione shifted her weight at the unwavering gaze of the other girl. Had she been wrong about this?

"Lavender?" She called out the girl's name and she was shocked out of her reverie.

"You look fantastic Hermione!" Lavender exclaimed and Hermione felt a wave of heat crash onto her cheeks. While she knew she looked good she wasn't used to hearing it and it was nice to hear the compliment.

"Thank you." Hermione really was grateful.

"Come on, let's go down to the Great Hall, I heard they did they same thing to the Hall as they did when the Yule Ball was here which means there's a dance floor and everything!" Lavender's excitement over the party made her laugh. This was a perfect moment where Lavender's inner child seemed to make an appearance.

"Is it winter themed like before or is it just the setup?" Hermione clarified.

"Just the setup. Come on!" Lavender told her, the excitement seemed to be killing her.

"Alright, I am right behind you." Hermione laughed as the girl nodded and scrambled to get down stairs. Hermione rolled her eyes at the antics and started her way down to the Great Hall.

As Hermione walked down the endless staircases and past the portraits she wondered what it would be like to be a portrait. She wondered how Professor Dumbledore was doing and she wondered a little more about how the magical workings behind making and being a portrait worked. Did you go to the afterlife and if so then how could you be in the frame? Were you at peace in a portrait?

Hermione frowned still confused but saved her ramblings for another time as she heard the sounds of celebration. Giggles, laughs, whispers, and happy yells were coming from the Great Hall and when she opened the door she gasped. It was beautiful.

The room was bright with explosive colors and fireworks writing messages in the air. The tables were pushed out of the Great Hall and a large dance floor was seated in the center of the room. Tables of all the house colors were seated in a corner and a large table of food with Butterbeer, huge concoctions of candy, and punch filled the table along with other snacks she couldn't see. The room was bustling with life and filled with joy, all the houses were getting along even the Slytherins.

She was supposed to feel happy and she did until she saw Harry, Ron, Lavender, and Ginny sitting at a table, leaving no empty chairs at the table. Hermione closed her eyes and took a deep breath as she walked towards the happy couples.

"Hermione, pull up a chair!" Lavender exclaimed, seeing her and she waved. Three heads whipped up to look at her. All were dressed casual but they all looked great. Hermione almost felt a little overdressed until she remembered that she wasn't wearing a formal dress or anything like that but rather a fancy top, heels, decent pants, and earrings. In all reality, her everyday wear was a little underdressed. She was fine.

"Mione, you look fantastic! I'll get you a chair hold on." Harry stood up and hugged her, his emerald orbs shining with their usual life and merriment, as he went to a nearby table.

"Harry you don't have to do that." Hermione told him in a hurry. She felt a blush creep into her cheeks and noticed the slight flicker of jealousy in Ginny's eyes.

"I'm already here Mione." He shrugged and picked the chair off the ground and placed it beside him and between him and Lavender.

"Thank you." Hermione told him as she sat down, the seat was pretty close to his.

"Not a problem." Harry shrugged it off. Ron then continued the Quidditch debate they had been having before Hermione came. She could smell his cologne as he leaned toward Ron, the debate getting hotter.

"Harry, let's dance." Ginny interrupted as a slow dance started to play. Harry looked back to her from his debate almost disoriented. He smiled and nodded standing up and grabbing her hand.

"Sure Ginny, be back guys." Harry let Ginny weave him between people and into the dance floor. Hermione felt a hot and nearly searing pain in her chest. Why had Ginny called him away all of a sudden?

"Do you want to go Lavender?" Ron asked the blonde.

"Sure. Will you be okay Hermione?" Lavender asked concerned and Hermione waved away the concern.

"Yeah." She plastered a smile on her face as they soon left and disappeared in the crowd. She pulled a strand of hair out of her face as she stared at the empty chairs before her, the perfect picture of abandonment, solitude, and many more ominous things that seemed to be the signs for the future.

"Hello." A dark haired man sat in what used to be Harry's chair. She recognized the smooth voice and turned to face him.

"What are you doing Blaise?" She didn't know why the Slytherin had left his friends.

"Nothing really, I just noticed how your friends left you here all alone and I thought I might visit." He leaned back in his chair and Hermione felt slight panic at the fact that even Blaise could tell that they were drifting apart.

"They went to dance. It's a slow song. It's nothing." She told him and he raised his hands in the air just slightly, as if he were surrendering to foreign troops.

"I didn't say anything but the truth and now you're getting defensive." He remarked almost analyzing her with his dark almost onyx eyes.

Hermione remained silent and didn't look back at him. She wouldn't let him get the best of her.

"I'm sorry. Let me start over, do you want to dance?" He broke the tense silence and a scowl danced on Hermione's face.

"Why do you want to dance with a 'mudblood'?" She put air quotations around the insult and watched him flinch.

"Contrary to popular belief dear, I wasn't a Death Eater," Blaise pulled back his left sleeve up to his inner left forearm and she looked at bare tanned skin. She hadn't thought he was a Death Eater. She just knew that he believed in those values but seeing how he purposely ripped up his sleeve to prove he was a good person made her feel terrible for making him feel like he had to do that. "See? No Mark. Besides can't I ask a pretty war heroine to dance?"

"Okay." She whispered.

"Fantastic." He grabbed her wrist tenderly and led her into the crowd where he placed his arms around her and started to dance. She wrapped her arms around him and after a few moments she relaxed and suddenly she felt a falling feeling and a shift in balance.

"Blaise!" She gasped. He smirked and brought her back to her feet, she was pressed close to his chest and she turned slightly rose red in her cheeks.

"What? It's called a dip." He grinned and she laughed. He wasn't that bad. They started dancing again and suddenly she heard clapping. She turned around praying that Harry hadn't done it yet but relaxed when it was Neville and Luna clapping as Harry and Ginny kissed. She didn't know why they clapped but at least it wasn't about _that_.

"You're in love with him aren't you?" Blaise questioned with his silver tongue and she turned back to him.

"What?" How did he know?

"I saw you look at him. Not the glance you give to friends but the pained glance you give when you're away from someone you care about. It's fine. Just I think he won't pay attention to you. He's in love with you as a sister. Not what you deserve. Besides, he's not the brightest person, he doesn't get that you care about him." Harry and Ginny had moved behind Blaise and she could see them and she couldn't see anything else but that mocking picture.

"He could fall in love with me." Hermione whispered. It wasn't too late. It couldn't be too late. Her best friend couldn't be beyond her grasp. Today was her last chance she just needed to talk to him. Right?

"Really? He looks pretty in love with Ginny. I think that you should move on to someone who deserves you. Besides, you're pretty brilliant so you must realize that all you're doing now is going through the stages of grief." Blaise suggested.

"Like who?" Hermione snapped.

"Like me." He said but as the couple in front of her shared another kiss, she couldn't take it. She had to get out of there.

"I'm sorry." She excused herself and left the Great Hall. Don't cry don't cry, she repeated the mantra in her head while she pushed the doors opened and gulped in fresh air. She sat across from those huge doors and prayed that no one would open them.

The door opened and she looked up into green eyes. The boy that seemed to haunt her and mock her with his mere existence stood before her, concerned nearly tattooed on his forehead. How had he seen her? Wasn't he paying all of his attention towards Ginny?

"Is something wrong?" He was the perfect picture of concerned best friend, with his caring eyes and small frown but that just made things worse. As soon as he had spoke she felt a horrible feeling in the pit of her stomach.

"Yeah. There is." Hermione told him but offered no more to his inquires.

"And?" He finally pursued after a moment of pause.

"I don't want to talk about it." She informed him. Really, she didn't. Why would she want to tell him? This wasn't a fairytale. This world they lived in may have magic but things weren't always happily ever after. Blaise was right and she had been acting like a love struck fool.

"I don't think it matters whether you want to or not but you seem to need to."

"It's not good Harry." She warned.

"Did that ever stop me from telling you things from the past like being able to see in Voldemort's head?" Harry retorted and Hermione shook her head.

"This is different."

"Hermione, you're my best friend, you can tell me anything." He almost begged her. She knew he wouldn't let up on it and it was better to get it over with already, right?

"I'm in love with you." Those words pierced the air around them and seemed to mock them both.

"Oh, Hermione…" There it was that pitying look on his face. She couldn't deal with it.

"Yeah, I should have told you sooner maybe I would have had a chance but I think I wasted that last chance. What I wouldn't give for one more day," She laughed bitterly. "Don't worry you don't have to pity me. I'll move on. I have no idea how but I know I will and that's a start."

"I'm sorry." He was and she could see that but that did nothing for the situation. It really didn't.

"It's fine. Marry Ginny and live the life you deserve. Even though it's wrong to me." Hermione stood up and gathered her bearings. She stood like a woman with immense pressure on her shoulders, a sadness that was hers to carry until it was finally lifted. But it wasn't necessarily a bad thing rather it was a hard thing to carry over time.

"Is this goodbye?" Harry asked. Hermione could tell that he knew that they wouldn't see each other for a while. She needed time to herself and he needed to go on through his wedding plans.

"Yeah, I think I'm going to travel and then take a job and one day completely heal." She didn't say when she was going to see him again. She knew she would, he had been in her life since he was eleven and she knew people like that didn't leave your life so easily.

"Goodbye Hermione." Harry held her in an –desperate?- embrace, the room filled with silence before he left to his love.

"Goodbye Harry. I'll miss you." She remarked and started her slow retreat to the dormitory. This was the beginning of a new chapter. She couldn't wait for the adventures awaiting her. She reached the dorms after silently traveling up the winding stairs and past the lively eyes of the portraits. There, she gathered her things and packed. Since it was the last day of school when she finished she walked out in front of the clear ebony water, small snow-white dots scattered on the ever moving, rippling surface, and sat down. She stared into the full moon and thoughts of Remus, Tonks, and then all the others that she lost floated into her head, the ghosts of her past would never leave her alone.

Suddenly she could hear a huge roar from inside the castle's walls and glancing at her watch she smiled. He had proposed. They were engaged, and the last chance she thought she had to change her future almost magically was gone. Now they could both fulfill the other's need for security in the sanctity of marriage.

_It was all over and he still wasn't hers and he never would be. He was the one that got away._

_**R and R!**_


End file.
